The Federalist Republic, 1824-36

After the fall of the empire, a provisional government was installed
consisting of Bravo, Victoria, and Pedro Celestino Negrete. Delegates
were elected to the Constitutional Congress that entered into session on
November 27, 1823. The congress had two major factions: the federalists,
who feared control from a conservative Mexico City and were supported by
liberal criollos and mestizos; and the more conservative centralists,
who preferred the rule of tradition and drew their allegiance from the
clergy, conservative criollos, the landowners, and the military.

Although the federalist forces largely prevailed in writing the new
constitution, the centralists won three major concessions. The
constitution of 1824, which was strongly influenced by the United States
constitution and Mexico's legislative relationship with Spain since
1810, established the United Mexican States (Estados Unidos Mexicanos)
as a federal republic composed of nineteen states and four territories
(see Constitutional History, ch. 4). Power was distributed among
executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. Legislative
power was wielded by the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, while
executive power was exercised by a president and a vice president
elected by the state legislatures for four-year terms. In spite of the
liberal outlook of the constitution, certain traditional privileges were
maintained: Roman Catholicism remained the official religion, the fueros
were retained by the military and clergy, and in national emergencies
the president could exercise unlimited powers.

During the administration of Mexico's first president, Guadalupe
Victoria, economic conditions worsened as government expenditures soared
beyond revenues. Declining economic conditions convinced the criollos
that there was more behind the economic decline than bad management by peninsulares
. One of the government's major burdens was the assumption of all debts
contracted during the late colonial period and the empire, a substantial
sum. The government's ability to service the debt was severely
constrained by the costs of maintaining a 50,000-strong standing army
and the insufficiency of revenues generated by tariffs, taxes, and
government monopolies. To cover the shortfall, Victoria accepted two
large loans on stiff terms from British merchant houses. The British had
supported independence movements in Spanish colonies and saw the loans
as an opportunity to further displace Spain as the New World's dominant
mercantile power.

Mexico's financial crisis was overshadowed in 1827 by a conservative
rebellion led by Vice President Bravo. The revolt was quickly suppressed
by generals Santa Anna and Guerrero, but political tensions remained
high as the presidential elections of 1828 approached. The September
1828 elections pitted General Guerrero as the liberal candidate for the
federalists against conservative Manuel Gómez Pedraza, who had served
as secretary of war in Victoria's bipartisan cabinet. The voting results
from the state legislatures showed Gómez Pedraza to be the winner in
ten of the nineteen states, but the liberals refused to turn over the
government, claiming that Gómez Pedraza had used his authority over the
army to pressure the states into voting in his favor. A period of
confusion ensued as two rival governments and their respective military
factions battled over the presidential succession. The liberals finally
emerged victorious after Gómez Pedraza abandoned the presidential
palace under sustained pressure from rebels commanded by Santa Anna and
Lorenzo de Zavala.

President Guerrero took power over a liberal government shrouded in
questionable legality and dependent upon the loyalty of the military.
Immediately upon assuming office, Guerrero experienced his first major
crisis when the Spanish attempted to retake Mexico. A Spanish force of
3,000 soldiers under the command of General Isidro Barradas landed at
Tampico in July 1829. Guerrero sent Santa Anna to dislodge the Spanish
force in August, but the Mexican general could not launch an effective
assault and instead dug in for a siege. Cut off from supplies and
weakened by disease, the Spanish surrendered to the Mexicans in October.
In the aftermath of the Spanish withdrawal, Santa Anna was widely hailed
as the savior of the republic.

With the Spanish threat gone, Guerrero enacted several liberal
reforms, including the abolition of slavery in September 1829. His
forceful style of governing, made possible by his retention of emergency
presidential powers obtained during the Spanish invasion, gave the
conservatives renewed cause to rebel. In early 1830, the conservative
vice president, Anastasio Bustamante, led a successful military-backed
revolt against Guerrero and installed himself as Mexico's third
president. While attempting to flee the country in January 1831,
Guerrero was captured and executed by government soldiers on
Bustamante's orders. Bustamante's conservative government was highly
unpopular and repressive. In early 1832, Santa Anna denounced Bustamante
in Veracruz, occupied the city, and appropriated its custom revenues.
Santa Anna's defiance spurred additional revolts throughout the states,
leading to the eventual collapse of the conservative government and the
return of the liberals.

The highly popular Santa Anna was elected president under the liberal
banner in early 1833. Instead of assuming office, however, he withdrew
into semiretirement and delegated the presidency to his vice president,
Valentín Gómez Farías. The liberal Gómez Farías government was
strongly reformist, to the detriment of traditional church and military
privileges. Among its reforms, the new administration decreed that
payment of tithes would no longer be compulsory, and it transferred to
the nation the right to make ecclesiastical appointments. In addition, Gómez
Farías reduced the size of the army and eliminated its fueros
.

Gómez Farías's far-reaching reforms drew a characteristically
strong response from conservative elites, the army, and the church
hierarchy. Under the banner of religión y fueros , the
inevitable conservative backlash gained strength throughout the winter
of 1833. In April 1834, Santa Anna abandoned the liberal cause and
deposed Gómez Farías. The renowned general promptly dismissed congress
and assumed dictatorial powers, bringing an end to liberal rule under
the federal republic.